Principia College: Finding Answers in the Archives

How we balanced tradition and potential to push a century-old Brand forward.

Challenge

Introduce an enigmatic, historic liberal arts college to new audiences without alienating generations of alumni.

Insight

All it takes to understand Principia’s appeal is one visit to its bucolic campus on the bluffs of the Mississippi. But first, you have to find it.

Solution

Make it unmissable. Create a custom wordmark that retains the essence of the original while making it practical for the digital age. Then, scour the archives for an emblem that’s at once nostalgic and modern.

Founded in 1898, Principia College is a tiny liberal arts college nestled in the woods high above the Mississippi River in Elsah, Illinois. Its less than 500 students live and learn on-campus, in-person, within a Tudor-style village designed by renowned architect Bernard Maybeck.

Principia College as seen through Principia’s extensive archival collection.

This intentional, community-focused infrastructure is central to the character development Principia values as much as its academics. It’s also a refreshing foil to the frenetic yet lonely, chronically online existence of the generation most colleges are fighting to attract.

Principia College’s beautiful campus layout, setting and architecture

Our task was to capture the college’s distinct environment, distill it elegantly, and deliver it to new audiences that had no idea it exists. Simple enough, right?

Just Their Type

We’d been longtime admirers of XYZ Type’s work, but it wasn’t until they created the custom typeface for the 2024 Brand New Conference that we realized one of the partners was also one of our neighbors. With an invaluable combination of talent and proximity, we hired type designer and St. Louis local Ben Kiel to pore over artifacts from Principia’s vast archives and recreate its iconic wordmark — with some improvements.

With a lot to love and a lot to ... not love, we set out to refresh their wordmark.

Based on the original pastel renders by campus architect Bernard Maybeck, we created a sans-serif version of the wordmark that was at once familiar and refreshingly modern. With the same big bowls and kicky R, the new Principia College retained its most charming characteristics while adding substance, style, and practicality.

Signet of the Times

Along with the new type, we were eager to evolve the logomark from something generally athletic adjacent to something more intentional, distinctive, and sophisticated. This is a College with residential housing that looks ripped from the pages of Architectural Digest, after all.

This signet ring, given to members of the Girls’ Athletic Association board in 1934, captured our attention instantaneously.

At once playful and historic, nostalgic and vital, it struck the perfect balance between the College’s past and its boundless potential.

Final primary mark lockup and refreshed color palette.

We complimented the primary mark with an ornate crest that draws inspiration from the campus’ setting, architecture and Christian Science principles. The full system has the flexibility to dial up the complexity for additional texture and richness as space and context allow.

Panther, Puma, or Cougar?

Yes. As we learned, the panther is actually a genus of big cat that includes the jaguar, leopard, and cougar (also called pumas, or mountain lions.) Principia’s own Panther mascot was introduced in the 1980s and had been depicted in a variety of ways, in a variety of colors.

After agreeing on a consistent color, we illustrated a lithe and agile new athletic emblem that balances strength and stealth.

And after a successful brand launch event, the new brand is officially in the wild.

Brand launch video

Capturing the grandeur and beauty of our campus and the Principia ideal, [the new brand] needs to embrace our legacy. This new identity is more than design; it is a promise. It points to the qualities we nurture here every day: character, curiosity, creativity, courage, and a deep care for one another.

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